Narendra Modi at a rally in Jagdalpur in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh
Bastar, Chhattisgarh:
Narendra Modi and Sonia Gandhi today faced off for the first time in Chhattisgarh as they campaigned in the Bastar region for their parties ahead of assembly polls later this month, being seen as a semi-final before the national election due by May.
Mr Modi's speeches were peppered with digs at both 'Shehzada' Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi, whom he referred to as 'Madam'.
"If there are five people in your family, can you feed yourselves with Rs. 26 a day? The people in Delhi say that... the shehzada who pays Rs.100-200 for a bottle of water in 5-star hotels says that," he said at a rally in Kanker, where Rahul Gandhi will address a gathering tomorrow.
Mr Modi also derided the Congress vice president's comment in August, that poverty was a state of mind. "Can hunger be a state of mind?" he questioned the crowds.
The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate also responded directly to Mrs Gandhi's comments directed at the state's BJP government a short while before, "These people only talk big, they don't match words with action, whereas Congress does the work."
The Congress president had said this at a rally in Kondagaon, around 60 km from Mr Modi's gathering. "The country knows what you've done without uttering a word. You need to answer the people for why you've not done what you've promised," she said.
Mr Modi rebutted at Kanker, "Madam is in Chhattisgarh today. She says her government doesn't talk but acts - yes, we saw coal scam action. Is what she says correct? Without even speaking they do so much... scams under the ground, scams in the air - all scams happen so quietly. And what they say they don't do."
Chhattisgarh goes to polls on November 11 and 19.
Mr Modi's speeches were peppered with digs at both 'Shehzada' Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi, whom he referred to as 'Madam'.
"If there are five people in your family, can you feed yourselves with Rs. 26 a day? The people in Delhi say that... the shehzada who pays Rs.100-200 for a bottle of water in 5-star hotels says that," he said at a rally in Kanker, where Rahul Gandhi will address a gathering tomorrow.
Mr Modi also derided the Congress vice president's comment in August, that poverty was a state of mind. "Can hunger be a state of mind?" he questioned the crowds.
The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate also responded directly to Mrs Gandhi's comments directed at the state's BJP government a short while before, "These people only talk big, they don't match words with action, whereas Congress does the work."
The Congress president had said this at a rally in Kondagaon, around 60 km from Mr Modi's gathering. "The country knows what you've done without uttering a word. You need to answer the people for why you've not done what you've promised," she said.
Mr Modi rebutted at Kanker, "Madam is in Chhattisgarh today. She says her government doesn't talk but acts - yes, we saw coal scam action. Is what she says correct? Without even speaking they do so much... scams under the ground, scams in the air - all scams happen so quietly. And what they say they don't do."
Chhattisgarh goes to polls on November 11 and 19.
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